European Utility Week to Focus on How Smart Homes Industry can Engage its Customer

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Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2013/08/07 - Hundreds of representatives of stakeholders in the Smart Homes industry, including utilities, telcos and service & content providers, will gather during the annual European Utility Week in Amsterdam in October - European-Utility-Week.com.

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They will discuss, amongst others, customer engagement and developing a strong business model for the sector.

“There is a growing consensus that in order for utilities, telcos etc. to engage the consumer they need to be firmly invested in understanding their behaviour”, says Zara Amer, producer of the Smart Homes track that forms part of European Utility Week, which will again attract some 8000 utility experts at what is the largest industry conference and exhibition on the continent.

Collective industry stakeholder effort needed
She continues: “there is such market potential for smart homes; it can offer the prospect of significant improvements in living standards for older or disabled people and healthcare features aside, it offers the rest of us the possibility of a more energy efficient and secure lifestyle.”

However, says Zara Amer,“the overall theme of European Utility Week, namely ‘Pulling together in one direction’ is of particular relevance to the Smart Homes market. She explains: “it is still in its infancy and it will take time before it takes off on a mass scale. I think what’s impeding its growth is a lack of a standardised industry definition. Moving forward is going to be a collective effort that will require all key stakeholders to pull together in the same direction. And for that reason we all need to make sure we are talking about the same thing i.e we have one singular definition of what the smart home stands for at present and what it could be in the future.”

Stakeholders will speak up
David Purdy, Director at the Energy Efficiency Deployment Office in the UK and a headline speaker in the Smart Homes track at European Utility Week agrees: “there are clear signs of stakeholders pulling together but in some respects it is quite early to judge. In Britain, for example, over the next five years there will be an unprecedented range of home energy management (smart home) solutions available to householders. Feed in Tariffs for solar have been available for some time now and the Green Deal launched this year. A Renewable Heat Incentive and Smart Meter roll-out will follow. The supply chain is getting to grips with new policies and products and the interplay between them.”

He continues: “clearly stakeholders will speak up for their sector. The smart homes agenda will develop quickest when stakeholders pull together and speak up for the whole agenda and highlight the benefits of installing a combination of products.”

Platform approach required
Another expert speaker on Smart Homes in Amsterdam in October, Yves Caseau, Executive Vice President at Bouygues Telecom in France, says telcos need to expand their domain to find new growth, from telecommunications to digital life. He adds: “an interesting property of digital life is that, because of its rising complexity, it may work better if operated, that is, with the remote assistance of an operator. Smart homes are one of the most concrete opportunities of this digital life field, the combination of a home, multiple connected objects, together with comfort and efficiency services bundled into ‘life moment scenarios’. This is indeed a growth sector, but it requires a platform approach, that is, the growth of an ecosystem with a long trail of home apps and services provided by third parties.”

All aspects of the utility business
Formerly known as Metering Europe, the newly branded European Utility Week (european-utility-week.com) focuses on all aspects of the utility business, from transmission to the consumer, including smart T&D infrastructures, renewable integration & storage, smart metering, ICT/ Data management, smart homes & end-user engagement, to form a unique smart energy platform. The event will feature an international exhibition with more than 350 solution providers, 200 industry expert speakers with some 8000 conference delegates and expo visitors, including representatives from more than 300 leading utilities.

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